The night before last I suddenly realized that there were hordes of young boys running hither and yon around the House. As they were all armed with rocks it could only mean one thing, that the first Snow Bunting fledglings of the year had appeared. Sure enough three or four harried fledglings were being chased back and forth between us and the lot next door.
I resisted my inner curmudgeon and the bird lover in me, and only went out to tell them not to throw rocks near my place (we’ve a lot of windows). As much as I wanted to scream out “Leave the birds alone!”, I didn’t. It is an event that has happened up here for millennia, actively encouraged as skill building in a hunting culture. Still I root for the Snow Buntings, and hope that the boys hunting skills are not as good as they are undoubtedly are. And I take comfort that there are a lot of Snow Buntings up here, most of which nest away from the community.
So here is a fledgling that survived the onslaught, about to have a big juicy Crane Fly stuffed down his or her maw by dad.
And here is dad amongst some Arctic Dryads searching for more insects to stuff down that insatiable maw.
And a butterfly that so far has escaped the Snow Buntings.
I believe it is a Polaris Fritillary (Clossinia polaris)
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A bit the way I feel about Ruby killing squirrels . . . fighting her nature would be extremely difficult and yet the squirrels annoy me severely and yet I don’t want them dead and yet . . .
Also how I feel about the cats catching birds… I know most birds are wary enough to stay out of harms way, it’s only natural that a healthy ct hunts – but couldn’t they limit themselves to rodents?